Israel on Sunday said that it will no longer allow refugees from Darfur to stay after they sneak across the border from Egypt, drawing criticism from those who say the Jewish state is morally obliged to offer sanctuary to people fleeing mass murder.

In marking this year's observance of World Refugee Day, the U.N. refugee agency is warning more countries are closing their doors to refugees because of growing intolerance and a fear of terrorism. The agency says genuine asylum seekers are being turned away and refused a safe haven at a time when an increasing number of people are fleeing violence, persecution and oppression.

Pope Benedict XVI urged Wednesday World leaders to give shelter for refugees who seek asylum in their countries. Speaking on a day the United Nations sets aside as World Refugee Day, Benedict said accepting refugees was a "dutiful gesture of human solidarity."

In eastern Chad, violence along the Sudanese border has forced more than 100,000 Chadians into camps. Squeezed into these tents and straw huts, they compete for water at the well and a limited number of latrines. Clinics run by international agencies try to contain and treat diseases that circulate in these often waste-infested, tight living conditions.

The United Nations refugee agency is running a provocative international advertising campaign that employs shock tactics to raise awareness about its work and drum up public support for those who have been forced to flee their homes.

The United Nations humanitarian chief today travelled to Uganda to meet aid workers and local authorities and tour camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) created in the wake of the long-running conflict between Government forces and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

The World Food Program (WFP) says it will be able to restore food rations it was forced to cut for more than a million displaced people in northern Uganda. As Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva, the WFP says it is able to restore the rations because of new contributions from the international community.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued a series of recommendations to help integrate refugees in Europe with the aim of enabling them to become productive members of society whether they stay or return home.

Australia and the United States have signed an unusual deal to swap illegal asylum seekers. The plan is for refugees held by the U.S. in Guantanamo Bay to be resettled in Australia, while Australia will send boat people from its detention centers on South Pacific islands to the United States. The aim is to deter people smuggling into the two countries.